Agricultural News
NCBA's Colin Woodall Offers Insight to 2016 Elections, Progress in Congress, TPP and GMO Labeling
Mon, 08 Feb 2016 12:17:31 CST
There has been a lot of focus on who will claim the White House after eight years of the Obama Administration. National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) lead lobbyist Colin Woodall said you also need to be watching closely the Senate elections this fall. There could be a flip in the control of the upper body of the U.S. Congress as well. He doesn't think there will be much of a shakeup in the U.S. House of Representatives, but the U.S. Senate could change control with the Democrats regaining the upper hand.
"So, we have to keep that in mind, as we look at a whole new administration coming in, with their regulatory regime and what they may want to try to do to the cattle industry," Woodall said.
An election year will make it tough for Congress to get much done. Some believe Congress has already accomplished what they can get done for the year. Woodall said he is not to that point yet.
"I think that's really looking at what the speaker had laid out," Woodall said. "Speaker Ryan has been very successful in his term and he has said that he is going to continue to work throughout the year. Specifically, he wants to work the Appropriations process through regular order. So, with that, I think he's really going to hold these committees to holding hearings to actually moving bills, so they could work through the spring into the early summer. Now once they leave for the July recess, I think that's probably it. But we could probably get some work out of them here in the spring."
It appears there is little opportunity for Congress to move forward on the ratification of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement. It's unknown when the Obama Administration will submit the agreement to Congress for an up or down vote.
An issue that needs to be addressed is dealing with the labeling of foods with Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) ingredients. Vermont passed a state law that will take effect later on this year. That law would demand mandatory labeling of everything that has a GMO ingredient in it. Senator Pat Roberts is working on a solution in the U.S. Senate. Woodall said the cattle industry is watching this issue, because of how a GMO might be defined. He said NCBA doesn't want a situation that if an animal has eaten GMO feed, they would be labeled a GMO product. NCBA will continue to monitor this situation very closely.
Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Farm Director Ron Hays featured Woodall on the Beef Buzz feature. Click or tap on the LISTEN BAR below to listen to today's Beef Buzz.
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network- but is also a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR below for today's show- and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady® NSI
Top Agricultural News
More Headlines...
